The present invention is directed toward a baby bottle or infant feeding bottle and more particularly, toward such a bottle that more easily and accurately informs the parent or other caretaker of the amount of liquid that has been consumed by the child.
When bottle feeding an infant or young child, it is important to ensure that the bottle's nipple remains full of milk, formula or other liquid in order to prevent the ingestion of air during the nursing process. Accordingly, during feeding, the bottle is normally held in an inverted position. The angle at which the bottle is held will, of course, vary during the feeding process in order to ensure that there is no air in the nipple. As the bottle feeding progresses, the amount of air in the bottle relative to the amount of liquid increases. The angle of the bottle must, therefore, be increased until, eventually, the bottle is substantially upside down.
During feeding, it is also desirable to monitor the amount of liquid remaining in the bottle in order for the parent or other caregiver to determine how much liquid has been ingested by the infant. Traditional nursing bottles frequently have graduated markings on the side of the bottle to indicate the amount of liquid contained therein. Conventional markings extend parallel to the bottom of the bottle and are sequentially numbered. To read the numbers, however, the bottle must be turned upright and the amount of fluid remaining in the bottle read by simply comparing the fluid level to the graduated markings.
Conventionally marked bottles require that the feeding be interrupted from time to time so that the bottle can be returned to its upright position in order to determine the amount of fluid remaining. Such interruptions of the feeding are undesirable since it may be difficult or impossible to make the infant resume feeding. See, for example, FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 2,514,744 to Cipyak and U.S. Pat. No. 7,347,337 to Schultheis et al.
To address this problem, it has been proposed to provide baby bottles with markings located in parallel slanted planes extending through the bottle. Examples of these arrangements can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,599 to Sklar and U.S. Pat. No. 3,028,983 to Barr. The purpose of the slanted oval markings is allegedly to allow the caregiver to read the lines while the bottle is being held in its slanted position. Unfortunately, these arrangements have not proven to be satisfactory.
Slanted parallel markings are generally not helpful since they assume a generally constant bottle orientation during feeding. In practice, however, the angle of the bottle tends to vary during feeding until the bottle reaches a substantially vertical orientation. Thus, providing a plurality of parallel markings on the bottle cannot provide an accurate indication of the amount of fluid remaining in the bottle.
A need exists, therefore, for a baby or nursing bottle that allows a caregiver to accurately monitor the amount of liquid being consumed while the infant is being fed and without having to remove the nipple from the baby's mouth.